SOLVED The second "spare" hard drive saved my data files

[TonyToews]

I have five consumer grade SATA hard drives in my FreeNAS system. With ZFS that means I can lose two hard drives and it will still function without loss of data. I purchased my hard drives from different manufacturers and vendors to help ensure I didn't have any similar models or production batches that might fail in the same way at the same time.

A hard drive failed. I replaced it and, five hours into the thirty hour resilvering process, another hard drive failed. Needless to say I was quite nervous until the resilvering completed. My second replacement hard drive should be here tomorrow.

I post this because this is first hand experience of a highly unusual set of coincidences. It's worth it spending the extra money for that second "spare" hard drive.

 

[cyberjock]

This happens so frequently its not funny. I'm happy you went with RAIDZ2 though

 

[TonyToews]

Turns out the problem in both hard drive failures were burnt/melted SATA to Molex power connectors. I've replaced the power supply with a Corsair (I'm told a good brand name) with six SATA power connectors.

Once I have web page setup with photos I will post the link for folks to ponder.

I will be talking to the vendor about reimbursing me for my burnt hard drives.